So I got this Photoshop 7.0 last week and I decided this weekend I was actually going figure out how to use it. Up 'till now I had barely figured out how to put text onto a figure with an arrow pointing at something. Layers were a new phenomena. I was using SuperPaint just a few weeks ago. I miss the arrows.<br>Anyway, the first thing I wanted to tackle was the header pic onthe top of all of my lab's pages. I put something together in 1994 and never went back and changed anything except when "aqua" came out I went a little nuts sprinkling them around.<br>So critique. this is what I had<br><br>(if your background has color this looks even worse than it is)<br>and after an evening of tweaking I got this:<br><br><br>I think it looks better but after staring at the old one for seven years I may have overdone it.<br>Question:<br>Is it over fuzzy?<br>Are the shadows too much?<br>The Dana-Farber Cancer Inst words are just like our logo but my lab name above I chnaged font. Mistake? Should I match the font below to make it cleaner?<br>I box the graphic in a fat border table. To see the final result go to:<br>http://mbcf.dfci.harvard.edu/<br>As you can see the html is as simple as you can get. Researchers can be coming from the weirdest browsers so I can't do anything flashy. Probably still works with NCSA Mosaic 1.0<br><br>Paul Morrison ... truth should never get in the way of a good story

Makes an awesome difference, huh? The new looks great - only thing I would do is lighten the shadow a tad and move the shadow a little tighter to the subject so as not to fill in the knockouts in the logo. Otherwise, you're cookin'!!!<br><br>Good job!<br><br>[color:red]Alec</font color=red>

Polymerase,<br><br>Reduce the spread on the shadows on the small type, and knock back the opacity of the shadow on the bigger items to around 50% of what it is currently. Otherwise, good work. <br><br>

You, ah, wanna stop steppin on the art directors' toes here. <br>Not bad. Not bad at all. Heres a few comments:<br>• As others have said, drop the opacity on the shadows. 40 or 45% should do — especially if this is gonna be printed.<br>• The 2 fonts are ok, but I would reduce DFCI's name so it also fits on one line<br>• Suggestion: lose the shadows under the logo and the crest. Place a light blue graph grid behind the "chart" that fades from left to right so it drops out just as it goes behind the type (leave the shadow, but at 45% opacity)<br><br>My 2¢. <br><br>

Thanks for everyones replies. I hadn't notice this "opacity" thing on the shadows so they were all 100%. Cut that in half on everything at least, more on the letters and everything does get a lot crisper. The rest of the controls ,spread, diffusion,etc I have down in the 1-4 range so I don't think I really know those effeects. I've gotta go to the lab on a big screen and just practice on a big object and figure out what those do exactly.<br><br>new with less shadow:<br><br><br>Dumb question #1: while messing in .psd and layers I have the checkerboard grid behind which is helpful. But to judge shadows I would like to swap in a white background for a moment. Is there a simple way to do this besides "save to web" and look then?<br><br>Question 2: Steve, I like your idea of a light blue graph behind the chromatogram. In the older title I had pasted "original" data. The stuff looks like this when it comes out:<br>http://mbcf.dfci.harvard.edu/Docs/adv40nanomole.html<br>Ah, question. Does PS have some graph grid laying around? Would you put the grid behind the HMS shield or fade it before it got close?<br><br>One last question. Since the most important info I need to convey is the words should I make them bigger? I could put the first line above the helix and flaming D logo all the way over to the chromatogram while inceasing height of DanaFarberCInt until it was the same height as the flaming D. But then the balance of words/pics might be way off.<br><br>Paul Morrison ... truth should never get in the way of a good story

Question 1: Create a layer filled with white and move to the bottom. Then just turn it on and off as needed. Virtually all my PSD files have such a layer, just called "White" on the very bottom. (Some people might also use the "background" layer for the same thing.<br><br>As for the type, I find it quite readable and distinct myself, especially with the adjustment to the shadows. Nice works Photoshop "Newbie"!<br><br>

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